Crossing the Internal Frontiers - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 186

ignored and undervalued. One of the world's most intense urban spaces
is surely New York City. Most people feel that they know New York, even
if they have not been there. Yet, in amongst the skyscrapers another trans-
formation is underway. This is the GreenThumb movement of community
gardens, led heroically for a decade and a half by Jane Weissman. Green-
Thumb is New York City's community gardening programme, promoted
from within the municipal authority, and aimed at turning vacant lots
blighted with rubbish, rats and abandoned cars into thriving community
gardens.
Derelict lands have been transformed, according to Jane Weissman, into
'safe, thriving and productive oases of green' , and now about 20,000 households
are actively involved in managing 700 community gardens. 22 These gardens
produce US$1 million worth of fruit and vegetables each year, and also
revitalize neighbourhoods, foster community pride, provide safe meeting
places for local youngsters and seniors, and offer job training. But perhaps
more importantly, they are people's little patches of wildness in the city.
Bertha Jackson, of the 127th Street Block Association in Central Harlem,
says: ' This is the beauty. Yearly we got two or three bushels of peaches from the tree. People
have come from near and far for Harlem grown peaches from our garden tree. The peach
that grew in Harlem.' Nearby Mary Sciales says:
Our community garden was created by students, staff, neighbours, community
workers and environment groups. Together we. . . have improved the environment,
which has made East New York a more beautiful place to work and live. Flowers
bloom, vegetables are harvested, the smell of barbecues fills the air and the students
learn. They enjoy learning outside. . . and our gardens are an oasis of beauty in
the deserts of urban decay.
Donna Armstrong's recent study of 63 community gardens in New York
State shows just how valuable these are to local people. She found that
they changed local residents' attitudes to their own neighbourhood,
resulting in improved care for properties, reduced littering and increased
pride in the locality. She also found that community gardens promoted
social cohesion and encouraged people to work cooperatively on a range
of local needs, such as shared child-care. In short, they improve social
capital and personal well-being. Those engaged in community gardening
have crossed another frontier, with four out of five saying that their mental
health has improved.
But not all is well. Though Jane Weissman was honoured in 1998 with
an appointment to the People's Hall of Fame, the city authorities do not
like the gardens. They do not recognize their value to local people, and
have transferred all responsibilities away from GreenThumb to the